Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the parties that form the so-called «Malcontents block» parties, i.e., those parties that share similar sceptical attitudes towards the EU integration project, or towards the further extension of competencies that the EU is planning. In particular, this paper seeks to identify the reasons behind the strong increase that some parties of the block are experiencing in the current period of crisis. For this purpose, a quantitative analysis of the electoral performance of the Malcontent block at the last European elections, and a qualitative analysis of some cases with dissimilar electoral results (National Front, Syriza, and Five Stars MoVement as cases of success; Civic Democratic Party, Attak, and Flemish Interest as cases of failure) was carried out. Furthermore, the article intends to verify whether the European elections retain their usual characterization of «second-order» elections.